


Fix You

by culturevulture73



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Fixing what JJ broke, Force Awakens Fix It, Han Solo Lives, M/M, Multi, New Books Don't Count, Sibling Incest (implied), TFA Fix It, Threesome (Implied)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 18:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7449781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/culturevulture73/pseuds/culturevulture73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is not how we end," Luke said, and his voice was darker than Han had ever heard it. "We end together – you come to the Force with Leia and me, not alone. None of us alone.”</p><p> </p><p>Because it takes Luke, Leia and Han to make things right. So they will have that chance.  TFA AU/Fix it</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_“The future, the past, old friends long gone.”_

_"Han…Leia!"_

Not young Han Solo screaming on the scan grid this time, instead the sound tearing him was the shriek of an unstable lightsaber igniting and the older captain’s voice caught in a ragged inhale as he was run through… screams from two young voices and a howl from Chewbacca.

 Dead. Slaughtered by Ben. The Dark Side welcomed by Kylo Ren as Han fell.

Older Leia Organa, tired and worn, no longer the princess. Feeling Han die, she doubled over in pain as he was ripped from her.

 And instead of falling out of a handstand, Luke Skywalker bolted awake, the echoes of their pain slicing through him crueler than the 'saber.

 He managed to pull a breath from his body gone ice cold. He closed his eyes and reached out for the two people who were all he had.

Leia, tense but with no trace of the horrible sorrow that had gripped her.

Han, alive. Tired and in a whirlwind of emotion but alive.

_“Difficult to see...”_

Luke tried to slow his pounding heart. He dreamed of Han and Leia often, especially on his worst days, when the loneliness clawed at him. But those dreams had all been of the man and woman he had known and loved, had left.  This vision of them was older, torn by their years apart.

_“Always in motion is the future.”_

The horrified screams that echoed above even Chewie’s howl – a man and a woman, so young. The woman caught Luke, drew him. Who was she?

In his cold exile on Ahch-To, Luke threw himself out of the limited warmth of his bed, onto his knees, hoping the bite of the stone floor of his dwelling would give him focus. He slipped into the eddies and currents of the Force, like sinking into the ocean below.

The first touch of the Force reassured him it was the future he had seen. But he was buffeted by the Force’s rising tide, as violent as it had been when the Knights of Ren had torn through his students.

_I have to go back…but I won’t be in time… again._

He had suffered enough for the ungrateful, sacrificed his life to the cause, so much given freely to try and bring peace with the power he had worked so hard to attain. _One time for me, for Leia, for Han. The galaxy can go to hell._

He willed the vision back. Focused. Heard, felt Ren's manipulation of his father; Luke gritted his teeth at the use of the Dark Side to play on Han’s hope. He followed the vision forward past Ben’s traitorous attack. Focused on…

Rey. That was her name, taken from Han's mind. In Han’s affection for her, Luke felt an echo of Han’s first bonds with him all those years ago.

He watched Rey and her friend running out of the darkness of the military base into the snowy forest around it, saw the man wield -

_My ‘saber? How – from where?_

Rey took up the 'saber when Finn – her friend was Finn - was cut down. She forced Kylo Ren back hard. The Force flowed through her like an ocean tide and she rode it as if she were born to it, pushing, parrying and snapping the blade.

Luke returned to the present, breathing as hard as if he had fought with her. _Why? Why show me this, why torment me?_

_Unless this is mine to see._

_Mine to change._

Luke had spent the years in exile gathering power to himself, with the solitude beating out any thought of the Dark Side. Hard to assert dominion over sea birds and rocks. Instead he banked his strength like a fire for a cold night. In the last few weeks, he had felt the Force, usually a quiet hum in his consciousness until he called upon it, rising to sound in his mind like a far off bell ringing closer and closer. Today, he had been nearly ripped apart, felt the deaths of so many millions far away. And now this vision, something he had a chance to change? Whether because of his own heart or the demands of the Force, he would decide later.

He reached out, searching for Han’s signature light among the souls between them.

 _There_. _This is now._

They were already in the military base, Rey, Finn and Chewie above the gantry bridge where he had seen Han killed.  Han moving forward as he had seen Ben on the gantry. Calling for his son.

Luke drifted deeper, surrendering to the pull of the Force. At this depth, he felt the life flowing through him as if he were floating in the ocean below. The power of the Force came into his grasp stronger than Luke had ever felt it, his to command. He had to protect Han from Ben’s final reach for the Dark Side. _This is not the right future._

The Force had brought him this – or was it his heart and soul not wanting to feel Han ripped away and Leia’s heart broken one more time? _If this is the end, then so be it. I will not let them fall._

_Han…hear me!_

 

Han stopped two meters from the edge of the gantry bridge. That was not Rey or Finn calling him.

_Han, no!_

In the split moment he realized the voice was in his head, Ben, in that insane mask and cape, turned.

_Stay where you are._

Han took a shuddering breath, hardly daring to believe. A long time gone, Luke had taught Han to shield his thoughts so that the siblings wouldn't hear what he didn't want them to. Ignoring Ben’s advance, Han dropped every shield, threw every thought he could out to the universe, a roll of the dice.

_Luke?_

Parsecs away, Luke concentrated with every fiber, wrapped his strength around the desperate reach from Han.

And ricocheted it towards Rey. _Take the ‘saber, move, protect Han – everything depends on this, Rey!_

Without thought, Rey responded to the unknown man’s voice in her head.  She ripped the lightsaber hilt from under Finn's jacket, ignoring his startled outburst. She slipped through the railing, calculated the jump down, and knew it was a leap she had taken hundreds of times scavenging.

Before Han could even process the rush of air and Finn’s yell, the young woman landed and then tumbled in front of him as he threw himself out of her way.  She was on her feet, the lightsaber ignited and at guard in one smooth motion, reminding Han of Luke so strongly he caught his breath, even as he slowly stood, watching her and over her shoulder, his son. 

Ben strode across the bridge toward them, stripping off his mask, exposing the fury beneath.

Han stared in shock. _No no no..._

What had happened to Ben? He had last seen him only six months before the massacre of Luke's students. The bright child he had been had disappeared into a controlled young man, reminding him of Luke's switch from desert child to Jedi. Still, even then, Han had sensed something fractured in Ben, something out of reach.

Now, Ben moved like a predator, the dark eyes he'd inherited from Leia narrowing. He carried alarming strength across his shoulders; he had none of Han's ranginess. Luke had said once that Ben reminded him of what he had finally unearthed of Anakin's Jedi days; tall and broad shouldered. Han forced down the thought that that was not all he had inherited.

Rey stood her ground, head lifted, as if daring him to advance. Even Han could feel the Force, light and dark swirling around them, concentrating on Rey…he felt the same spark at the back of his mind that he associated with Luke and Leia. From Rey now.

_Luke, where are you?_

Ben brandished his own ‘saber, a red spitting blade that looked more like fire than the smooth blue blade Rey bore.

“I see you escaped, scavenger! And you’ve come to help her!”

“Ben! Don’t do this!” Han yelled and saw the flicker of light fading around his son. Leia had said there was still good in him but those eyes – no trace of remembrance of who he was, who they were to each other. There was a blankness under the venom, as if his personality was erased. Where was their son?

Rey moved forward, surefooted, with a ferocity Han could feel like it was alive. “I won't let you hurt him!”

“You’ll stop me? You can try!” Ren snarled at her.

They closed on each other. The flurry of blade on blade forced Rey back for a few strokes but then she pressed her attack and put Kylo back, hard. Han stared at the once familiar blue blade; Rey was less polished than Luke had been when he wielded it, but she struck with a fury that scared him.

Warmth wrapped itself around Han’s soul, threaded through his thoughts and heart. As if Luke was just out of Han's line of vision, as if those powerful hands, toughened by years of farm and sword work were on his shoulders. Even as he held his breath watching his son and Rey fight, Han was reaching as far as he could, trying to find the soul that was calling to him.

Rey forced her attack, and Kylo stumbled to the gantry floor, catching himself before he went over. She brought her blade back to guard, daring him to stand. “Do or do not, there is no try.”

Ben gaped at her, and Han did as well. How many times had both of them heard Luke say that?

“You know where Skywalker is! You have his ‘saber! It belongs to me!”

Han heard the disgust when Kylo said Luke’s name, but he had to try. "Ben, this isn’t you. Please, you can come back with us, your mother and I want you back!“

Rey overrode him. “You have a chance to come back to the Light and you should take it.”

“The Light? And be weak and foolish like my father?" Kylo sneered. "I am where I belong. You, scavenger, you are strong with the Force but you need a teacher. Not Skywalker, me.”  He batted at her from the gantry floor, trying to get his feet back under him. Han watched in horror and winced as Rey slipped under Kylo's guard and sliced across his face. Ren howled, hand to the mark, dropping his guard completely.

Rey snarled in icy fury. “Not you! I know what is in your heart. If you strike Han down, there is nowhere so far you can go that I won't be waiting!"

An echo, almost, like a double track – Luke was _there_ , somehow, in her voice, her ferocity. The wash of the Force changed to light beating the darkness, breaking over them like a wave. If he could feel it, Han knew his son could as well, guessed that Rey did – she was shaking as he was. He could see the fear on his son’s face as he finally stood again, blade at guard.

_Luke…_

“The next time, you won't have a protector!” Ren snarled, pointing his blade at Han, nothing but frustrated fury behind the gesture. Not a spark remained of the child Ben had been.

“Don't bet on that, Ben.” He somehow found his wolf grin. “The Jedi will return.” As it came out of his mouth, he had no idea of what thought had put it there. No, he did know. Luke's touch on his soul.

“The old ways are dead!”

“No. The Dark Side is dead. The Light always comes back.”

The warmth of Luke’s presence began to slip.

_Han, bring her, come find me..._

The explosion of blaster fire in front of them jolted Han free of the end of Luke’s tether. Thankfully stormtrooper aim had improved – Finn had neatly filled the space between Rey and Kylo with a sizzling hole. Rey shrieked unintelligibly and Han crossed the space between them, gripped her shoulder. “Let’s go!”

She didn’t move.

“Rey!”

The next shot was from Chewie’s bowcaster and Rey extinguished the lightsaber and turned in one fluid motion, securing the hilt in her belt. Han looked at her, saw her unfocused eyes – the same as Luke's when he was first learning, the aftermath of the Force roaring through.

“C’mon, we’re not out of this yet. Don’t wanna be around when this whole place goes up!” He ignored the chill that went down his spine, eerily certain that there was a reality in which he’d done just that. He spared one glance back at his son, who was running to the other side of the gantry, no doubt calling every trooper in range. _This isn’t over._

“Go, Finn!” Han yelled and saw the ex-trooper move. “Chewie, light ‘em up!”

At the Wookie’s response, he picked up the bag holding the rest of the charges and threw it hard over the edge. “Who the hell doesn't put a railing on these things?” He looked back to make sure Rey was on his heels and moved.

That they made it to the Falcon before the majority of the charges hit was a happy surprise. That there were no guards on the way was an even happier one. Han grabbed Rey and Finn just at the top of the ramp. “You two, get to the guns. We may have company when we get out of the atmosphere.” The ground shifted under the Falcon alarmingly and he threw himself into the pilot’s chair as Chewie ran the fastest preflight in known space.

There were no ships to stop them. Han calculated the jump and punched in the coordinates with the last of his adrenaline. The Falcon leapt to hyperspace and he finally exhaled. He looked a moment at Chewie before the furry arms crushed him into a hug. “I know, pal. We are too damn old for this.”

< Especially you.>

“Ha. Yeah.” He met Chewie’s gaze. The Wookie's eyes were wide. "What did Rey--?"

<She flew down to stop Ben.>

“Flew?”

<Dropped far – I don’t…> He shrugged. <She was like Luke, with his ‘saber. Where did it come from?>

Han closed his eyes. “Beats the hell out of me.”

<Ben - > Chewie howled mournfully.

“I don't know. Leia thought he might still…but I don't think there's any Ben left.”

<He.. if not for Rey-->

“If not for Luke.” Han drew an uneasy breath. “I swear, Chewie, I heard Luke. In my head.”

The Wookie growled skeptically. <No – you want to hear him.>

“No, I _heard_ him, you big furry oaf. In my head. I may be reckless but I ain’t crazy. It was Luke. He did something.”  _Stopped my son from killing me._ He knew it as surely as he was sitting in the pilot’s chair.

Finn burst into the cockpit. “We’re clear!”

“Yeah, we are. Your buddy Poe must’ve gotten the fleet. Hopefully they got Starkiller too.”  

Finn sobered fast and Han inwardly winced. “I’m sure he’s fine.” He thwacked him on the arm. “That was some nice shooting, Big Deal.” As he hoped, Finn smiled.

“Thanks.”  Finn turned as Rey came in, looking washed out. About to say something, Finn settled for hugging her. She weakly returned it, clearly dazed. Han shot a glance at Chewie, who was looking at Rey too.

Han got to his feet and Rey slid out of Finn’s hold into the pilot’s chair as if she belonged in it. Finn looked poised to say something and then seemed to think better of it, following Chewie’s lead and looking at him. Han sighed inwardly. Gods, life had been a lot less complicated when he hadn’t been the oldest human in the room. He gestured Finn and Chewie out of the cockpit, hit the door controls to shut it behind him.

Finn apparently did have an inside voice. “What happened to her?”

“You were next to her,” Han prompted.

“One minute, she was watching, then she looked at me…like that. All far away. Like now. She reached over, took the lightsaber and she moved!” Finn shook his head.  “I’ve never seen anything like it – she nearly flew to where you were. And then that fighting – I mean, she could fight with that staff of hers but that was serious sword work.”

“Yeah." Han shifted gears. “So Maz gave you the ‘saber?”

“During the attack at the castle, I used it there. What – wait, you recognized it –“

“Yeah. I’m pretty damn sure that's Luke’s old ‘saber.” He couldn't keep the steel out of his voice. How did his son even know it was Luke’s? Ben had never seen it. And what in hell was anyone doing with it, let alone Maz Kanata?

" _Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber_? It had a green blade in the holovids about you, what the First Order showed us.”

Han sighed. “Those holovids and anything those bastards showed you were all done once we won. The green blade was his second ‘saber.” Finn knew their stories but what did he believe? “Look, I need to talk to Rey.”

“I've never seen anything like what she did. She beat _Kylo Ren_.”

Han smiled. “Get used to it, Big Deal. It only gets crazier from here.” He put a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “You’re friends with a Force sensitive. It is never going to be easy.”

“Rey? Are you sure?” Finn narrowed his eyes, looking askance at him.

Han sighed, pushing down on the urge to lecture Finn about the Force again. _“_ Go with Chewie. Try not to make him mad. And let him win if you play dejarik.” He returned the perfectly snapped off salute with his own casual one.  

Rey was staring at the blur of hyperspace from the pilot’s chair, as if the blurred stars held all the answers. Han dropped into the co-pilot seat and let the silence reign for a long minute. Before he could say anything, she turned, leaned over and threw her arms around his shoulders, pulling him tight. “I'm so glad you’re alive,” she mumbled into his neck.

“You and me both.” He gently put his arms around her, and caught his breath. She wasn't thin, she was on the edge of malnourished. _Rey, we’re going to get you home and feed you._ “Thanks, that's one I owe you.”

She pulled back, drew into herself. “Sorry – “

He looked at her. “For a hug? Never apologize for that. I miss ones from people not covered in fur." He smiled, but couldn't hold it. "What happened, Rey?”

The hazel eyes came up to meet his. “I heard a voice in my head – told me to take the ‘saber and protect you. That everything depended on it.”

Yes, it had been real. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. “The voice in your head was Luke Skywalker.”

“Luke Skywalker?” She gaped at him. “In my head – how?”

 “Through me.” He managed the smile finally, but it felt shaky. “He …he’ll have to explain how he found me, you. But it was him – I heard too.”

“You said you knew him –“

Han almost laughed. “That's one way of putting it. Luke, Princess - General Organa, and me - we’ve known each other nearly thirty-five years, been so close - I don't even know what we'd call our relationship anymore.” _Friends, then lovers, my defenders, the ones I always defended._

“You said ‘people who knew him best,’ like those were other people, but... it was you! You knew him best.”

“Rey, I’d met you about twenty minutes before that, and you’re talking about Luke like he wasn’t real. And why should I trust you? The First Order has executed beings in front of me for less. And you're with a guy in stormtrooper boots.”

He bit back on the irrational anger threatening to strangle him. _Luke didn't leave that long ago._ But even to him, the past five years felt like a lifetime, dragged back underwater, far too old to be smuggling, back to where he was before he walked into a cantina in Mos Eisley. “Oh, Luke is real, alright, even if he did disappear.”

“But if he did this, how did he _know_?”

 _“I felt your pain.”_ The memory snapped through Han's mind. Luke's voice in the dark early morning of the day they’d flown to Endor. The prosthetic hand curled between them as Han held him; the calm, strong mask slipping until Han had seen the kid he remembered, desperate. _“I saw you, heard you. I came to save you and failed.”_  

Han swallowed. “He came before, when he knew I was in trouble. He just did it from a distance this time.” _Damnit, kid - where are you?_ “He must have had a Force vision.”

Her head came up like a flushed bird. “A Force vision? What is it like?”

"He's the Jedi, not me. But he's said it’s like a clearer dream.”

She slid the lightsaber out of her belt and held it out to him. “I found it in a box, at Maz’s castle. She said it was Luke’s and his father’s before that and that the Force, the saber called to me. When I picked it up, I think I had what you said: a Force vision.”

Han took the lightsaber from her hands, as calloused as his own. He had seen it nearly every day for three years, hanging from Luke’s belt; he'd used it himself that night on Hoth. He traced a shaky index finger along a deep scratch, knowing when it had been gouged. “This is Luke’s. What did you see?”

“I heard voices, I can't even sort them out. Images I can't place. The only one that makes sense is the first one – a man my age maybe, blond hair, with the 'saber, fighting someone in a black cape and a helmet. I've seen pictures – it was a place called Cloud City.”

Carbon freeze drew ice down his spine again. “I think you saw Luke – he was just a few years older than you then. That was when he lost the lightsaber. More than thirty years ago. The man in the black cape and helmet, that was Darth Vader.”

"That's who Kylo Ren wants to be – “

Han felt sick. “He was the apprentice who turned on Luke. Did he hurt you, Rey?” She nodded. “I'm sorry.”

“Why? You're not responsible for him.”

“He's my son, mine and General Organa’s.”

She caught her breath. “He said you would disappoint me – oh.” She shook her head, fixed him with her wide-eyed gaze. “No, you - I don't care – you are not responsible for him."

Han caught his breath at her defense of him. It was the first time in a long time that anyone other than Chewie had given him any sort of vote of confidence. "Rey –"

"You saved Finn and me. You could have thrown us off the Falcon, left us at Maz's – you were trying to help us."  The conviction in her voice reminded him so strongly of Luke. Another desert child, in similar grey-white clothes, sitting in the pilot's chair. “He wants to be like this Vader, stronger. Why?” 

Han knew there was no way he was strong enough for that conversation right now. “What else?” he asked instead.

She looked down at the cockpit floor, concentrating on her memories. “Night, fires burning. Ash in the air. A man in a black cloak with a mechanical hand, a blue and white astromech droid.” 

“That's probably also Luke. He lost his right hand when he lost the lightsaber. He had an artificial hand but the mechanism was aging, so he was in the middle of having it replaced, had a temporary mechanical hand, when everything happened. I think you're seeing what happened with his academy, but we'll have to ask him."  

"You said everything was destroyed? "

“The Knights of Ren." he hesitated even now over that ridiculous name. "Night attack, burned the academy. Almost six years ago. Luke wasn't there but he disappeared soon after." Han could remember arriving days later, the ruins, the investigation, the start of a nightmare he was still living.

“Why did I see those things?” Desperation tinged her voice.

“Rey, I don't know. I know you’re Force sensitive. Even I can feel it, which means you have to be pretty strong with it. That’s why Kylo wanted to teach you.”

“Why would I learn from him? He hurt me, he nearly killed you. I can’t believe he’s your son.“

Han shook his head. “Thanks, Rey, but yes, he’s really mine. When you meet his mother, you’ll be even more surprised. He must have been overwhelmed. He wanted your power – to take it from you, take you as an ally, I don’t know. And you fought like you’d handled a lightsaber before.”

“I don’t know…it was like I knew what to do. But I fight with a staff.”

They were in deep water now. Han had no idea what to say to the wide eyes desperate for answers. “I hate to tell you, Rey, but we’ll have to wait for Luke on that.”

“But how will we find him? The map’s incomplete, you said so.”

“Maybe Luke will come back and tell us where he is. Then we can make our own map. The last thing he said in my head was to come find him.” He looked at her, as obviously exhausted as he was. “We’ll have to talk all this out when we’re both not about to crash. And the story needs Leia and it needs Luke.”

“Who is Leia?”

Han realized he was conjuring names and memories where she had nothing but a scary vision. He reached into his jacket, the pocket inside over his heart, which, because he was always the sentimentalist Leia accused him of being, was fitting. He pulled out a small rectangle, a little faded, old. 2D, printed years ago. He had a few souvenirs left of the Republic and the Rebel Alliance, but they were all packed in a trunk held by Chewbacca’s parents on Kashyyk. This was all he had with him.

He handed it to Rey after looking at it again. He no longer even remembered who had taken it or when but it had to have been shortly after the first Death Star. Sitting at a late meal on one base or another, he was looking back at them with almost a smirk, Luke next to him with that shy smile, Leia looking directly ahead, chin lifted in defiance but her smile… So heartbreakingly young, all three of them. Some nights he remembered all the good days, the feel of them with him, the home and family they had forged in the war and held together in the peace. Other nights, to look at it only made his soul ache for what had been lost.

Rey stared as if she was absorbing it from her finger tracing the colors, looking from the picture to Han himself. “How long ago was this?”

“We had just destroyed the first Death Star – thirty-four years ago or so. Luke and Leia were 19, I was 29. That’s Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. She is – was – a senator, then a leader of the Rebel Alliance. She’s a general now, in the Resistance. You’ll meet her when we get back. The kid is Luke.”

“That’s who I saw at Cloud City. This is so long ago."

"I…it's when we started. I can conjure it all with this one." Han took the picture back and slid it inside his jacket. “When we get Luke back, I promise you we’ll tell you and Finn the whole story.” He laughed shortly. “The knight, the princess and the smuggler. Force knows, not one of those awful biographies got even one-tenth of it right.”

 “And you were a war hero, like Finn said?”

“Well, as Luke’s mentor Yoda told him ‘wars not make one great’. But they do make you famous.” He smiled at the memory. “I met Luke and together we rescued Leia. I became a general in the Rebellion, like Finn said. We were all famous heroes at one time.” _And everything to each other._ But while it had been scandal for awhile, now it was as faded as the rest.

At her bewildered expression, he grinned. "Don't worry, Rey. Even I have trouble believing it and I lived it."

She nodded, looked up into his eyes. “Maz said the family I was looking for is ahead of me.”

“Well, she’s pretty smart, in her own annoying way.” _And when I see her again, we’re going to have a very long talk._ “You can come with us to the Resistance. Start over.”

“I…the last few days? I don't even know how I got _here_.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, reminded of again of that other kid from a desert planet. _Luke, you damn well better tell us how to find you._ “Y’can’t stop to understand why, Rey. You just keep going and hope you figure it out in time.”

 

Luke collapsed onto the stone floor, as exhausted as if he had dueled Vader again; worn, wrung out, his emotions and nerves scraped raw. He gulped down air to get his equilibrium back. After long minutes, he pulled himself up, into his usual cross legged meditation position.

He touched his connection to Han and it resonated, stronger than it had since he had left five years ago. He had _felt_ Han torn from him as his own strength gave out.

But Luke had never expected Han's reach back to him, Solo’s consciousness open and matching his in a way that it sometimes had when they had all been together. But over this distance? After so much had changed?

He felt the sting of tears he hadn't dared shed once he left Han and Leia, or the wound of leaving would open further.

Unbidden, the memory of the night he had left for this exile five years ago broke over him again. He had known he had to go but he couldn’t without seeing Han and Leia once more. Slipping into their apartment in one of the faceless towers of the capital, he knew his sister would know he was there and he wasn’t surprised when she brought up the dim lights in the main living area, emerged from the bedroom, Han in her wake, both looking as if they had aged twenty years.

“Han, Leia,” he said their names like an incantation, as indeed, it probably was.

“Luke,” the muffled cry from both of them as one, pulling him into their arms.

“We thought –“Han said softly.

“I knew you were alive, but …” she trailed off.

He had held onto his composure for so long, running on adrenaline, trying to find out what had happened, but the last two who loved him ripped the end of him apart. His sob was wordless and as they all broke down, he knew that nothing would ever be the same.

“What happened – it was Ben, wasn’t it? They never found his body,” Han said sharply when they could all draw an even breath.

“Han,” Leia admonished.

“He’s right,” Luke couldn’t meet their eyes. “He had a group with him. Masks, cloaks - cowards. Slaughtered everyone on a night they knew I wouldn’t be there. I got back for the end of it, managed to kill one of them.”

“You’re sure it was Ben who did this?” Leia's voice broke.

“Yes. He left me a message, written in gods know whose blood, that the knights of Ren would destroy all the Jedi. Used the Corellian, Alderaannian words for Uncle, so I knew. Wrote that he was continuing the work of his grandfather, Darth Vader.”

Leia caught her breath harshly and Han cursed in Corellian.

Luke swiped at his eyes. “I know what we all taught him, but apparently it didn't take. He could have killed me, just me. Not children. Not people he knew.”

Han shook his head. “Don’t talk like that, if we’d lost you too...”

“I’ve seen the news. The First Order welcomes their actions, burning out the traitorous Jedi and their magic," the knight said bitterly.

“We’ll fight back,” Leia said simply.

“With what? You know what’s next. Inquiries. The Senate burying all of us in hearing after hearing – I’m sure I’ll be charged with neglect. Your son, the child of the heroes, turns on the Jedi? That becomes public? Everything we bled and sacrificed for will be gone.”

“It already is,” Han said wearily.

"It isn't,” Leia said sharply. “We will fight this, together, the way we always do.”

“Not this time. Twenty beings, in my care. Ben turned to the Dark, with more like him? This is my fault.” He pulled away from them, flung himself across the room, unable to take their comfort. “I have to go.”

“Where?” the two of them echoed each other.

“I'm going to find the First Temple. This is the opening of a long fight and I have to be strong enough for the battle." He wrapped his arms around himself, closed his eyes. "And I'm scared of what I might do – I might go find him and I can’t now or it will be worse.”

“Luke, you know you wouldn't. You know we’re with you.” Leia reached for him.

He stepped back. “I let your child go to the Dark Side.”

“He made his own choice,” Han said harshly.

“You don’t know the power of the Dark Side,” Skywalker whispered.

Solo snapped. “Listen to me, don’t tell us he didn’t choose.”

"Han, he's your son. Yours and Leia's.” Luke ran his hands through his hair, still not believing he was even having this conversation.

Han's fury was a response plastered over pain, bleeding through the Force. “He turned on you and killed your people. We knew all of them – this is personal.”

"Why?" Leia looked like she had those horrible months after Bespin, and Luke could feel her horror and pain through their bond. “Why would he do this?”

“I don’t know…all I know is I have to go. He’s raised his own gang. And I'm sure he'll go to the First Order. Their Supreme Leader Snoke wants the Jedi dead. Now I'm the last. Again.”

Leia turned white, pulling the thought from him. “You can’t leave us forever, Luke, no.”

“Let us help. I’ll take you, we’ll find it –“Han offered.

Luke turned away. “I want to, so badly. But I have to do this alone. You don’t know, if this slips – we won once. This is different. I can’t beg Ben to help me against Snoke, he’s not Anakin Skywalker. He idolizes what Anakin became. Force help me, I don’t know how we got to this point, but we have to get out of it. I’ll let the Force guide me. I'll start at Tatooine, where it all began.” He turned back to see them, and felt the last of his strength slip away. They came to him as one and he let them hold him, knowing this might be the last time he ever saw them. The two who had known him longest, his sister, his oldest friend, his lovers. “I don’t want to do this but there’s nothing else to be done. When the time is right, I’ll get word to you, come back, I promise.” He didn't know if he was lying to them or himself. He couldn't go unless he could believe he could come back.

He pulled back, then kissed each one in turn as if he would never return. Then he remembered catching himself against Han, as the Force seized him without his own action. But now, with sudden clarity, he remembered his whisper against the captain’s ear, “You’ll bring me my next knight.”

_Rey._

The hazel eyed girl, whose own ferocity scared him, as she dueled Kylo Ren and saved Han's life. He hadn't expected her to meet his own reach for her so easily, to respond to his plea as if she were born to stalk a half trained aspiring Sith, and batter him down. The Force washed back from her along their link and he knew she blazed with it. It had been a gamble to even try what he did and she had responded so powerfully, it rattled him.

Who was she? And how had she ended up with Han?


	2. Chapter 2

Once the Falcon landed in the middle of the rest of the Resistance fleet on the field at D'Qar, Han led them out in somewhat orderly fashion. Finn broke away almost immediately, looking for Poe in the crush of X-Wing fighters and whooping when he found him. Rey stayed next to Han, cautiously surveying the celebrating pilots, fighters, and ground staff.

Leia separated from the rest of the officers and ran to them in a very un-general like manner. Han caught her, was reminded of the first Death Star again, and was sick of forgetting what they had been to each other. He pulled her in and kissed her, was suddenly drowning in her again. She didn't fight, nearly sobbed against him and returned the kiss. “Damnit,” he whispered against her mouth. “We are not letting go this time.” He kept her close. “You're trembling,” he whispered into her hair.

“I could feel something, through the Force - I was scared you were dead.”

“I – we’ll talk later – right now, there’s someone you need to meet.” Reluctantly, he stepped back and pulled Rey forward.  “Rey, this is General Leia Organa.”

The general looked at the thin, dark haired girl in grey linen, meeting her gaze evenly. Her own Force sensitivity was screaming at her. “Rey. So you're the girl Finn was after, the one Han told me about.”

“Han told me about you, too.”

“Oh did he?” She gave him her appraising look.

“All good,” he protested. “Listen, we have to see that map to Luke again.”

"Now? We already know --“

"It's incomplete but Rey has his ‘saber. The one he lost at Cloud City.”

Rey handed it to Leia. The general’s eyes widened at the sight of the familiar hilt, met Han's eyes as he nodded. _“How?”_

“Maz Kanata had it."

"Maz Kanata," Leia echoed, turning the 'saber in her hands."

Han nodded. "Rey picked it up and had a Force vision of Luke.”

Leia looked sharply at the girl. “You saw him?”

“In the past – Han showed me a picture,” she said, looking from Han to Leia, watched them have a whole conversation with eyes alone.

Leia caught her breath. “You still have that?”

“Some nights it's been all I had.”

Han said it so softly, she almost missed it. Leia saw something lurking in his changeable eyes, but the pain she had seen in them when he left for Starkiller had ebbed. He seemed almost the man she had loved all these years. “There's something else, Han.”

“I heard Luke. In my head.” Head half bowed, he looked at her, almost evasive, as he always did when gauging her reaction.

She narrowed her eyes. “ _Heard_? You're sure?”

He grimaced. “Yeah. I know, I know--“ 

She had done some Jedi training but gods, she and Luke had fought about how much Force sensitivity Han had. She closed her eyes. “How many times have we thought – “

“This is different. Rey heard him too. You said you felt the Force here, we did too.” He closed his eyes. “And Ben was there.”  He drew in a shaky breath. “Let’s concentrate on getting Luke back. Then work on fixing the rest.”

 

The track of the course on the merged maps ended abruptly and the air went out of the room. Han strangled a curse. He could have bought any of a hundred fake maps on half a hundred worlds for this result. The end at Tatooine made it art, at least. Someone knew enough about Luke to fake that.

“Han,” Leia said sharply, meeting his eyes across the starchart. “Tatooine. He said he'd start there, remember?”

In an instant, he did. Luke’s voice, unsteady, on that horrible night he had left them: “I'll start at Tatooine, where it all began.” Han stared at the floating stars as he had on the Falcon, but this time, something nagged at him. He could swear he knew the destination…but it wouldn't come. He looked at Leia, could almost read her thoughts, the way he could sometimes when all three of them were together. She almost had it too; he could see it in her eyes. But after long moments, she shook her head, cursing softly.

Rey was next to him. "I'm sorry. For a minute I was sure I knew the name."

Han shot her a look. "So were we." He closed his eyes. "I guess Leia and I wanted it so badly, we conjured it." He watched the pilots drift away towards their celebration of surviving, saw Finn look over at Rey with hopeful eyes. "Listen, go with Finn, go meet the pilots. I'll talk to his friend Poe about getting you a tryout. Go have a little fun. You've damn well earned it."

"What about you?"

"I've been to too many of those bashes." He shook his head to clear it, blinked the ghosts of Luke, Lando, Wedge and the others of Rogue Squadron away. "Make sure you eat something."

"But – "

In an instant, he grasped what she was too skittish to say. "Rey, you're part of the Resistance now. No one's going to make you pay for food. Go on. I need to talk to the princess." She nodded, touching his arm, and walked away.

The staff went back to their stations, already working on the withdrawal plans. Leia moved to him as he leaned on the projection tank.

"Why can't we find him?" she asked softly.

"I don't know." Han looked at the map, floating serenely above as if mocking them.

"The Resistance needs him." She shut the tank down.

"Resistance, hell," Han muttered as she came alongside him. "He's more than a symbol. You know that as well as I do."

She looked up at him, her eyes wet. "I know.  I miss him so much. I'll dream he's back, landing on the field in his old flight suit, and it'll be so real."

He pulled her against him. "And then you wake up and it's worse."

She nodded, then pulled back into command mode. "C'mon. You and I need to talk."

 

Her quarters were a small set of rooms, the front one dominated by her desk, covered in data pads. There was an old couch and a low table in front of it. Han winced as he realized it was a copy of their last living room, before everything had gone so wrong. He dropped onto the couch and she sat at the other end.

“You said you were scared I was dead?” he asked.

“It wasn’t clear but for a moment, I was so sure – what really happened?” Leia demanded.

“Rey saved my life.” He knew that as surely as he knew the Falcon would break at the worst time. He told her the full story. He watched her face, saw her eyes close in pain as he told of Ben's part. “I’m sure Ben would have killed me, without Luke pushing Rey. I don’t know how he found us, but you gotta believe me. The voice in her head, the voice in mine…it was Luke.”

In way of response - he _hated_ when she went all regal-quiet on him – she got up and returned with a bottle and two mugs from a desk drawer, and poured Corellian brandy.

After a long swallow, she shook her head.  “I don't know what I believe any more. It’s all gone so wrong.”

“Maybe this is the turnaround. You and I together, we can get Luke back – we have a new student for him.”

“Because our last one worked out so well.” She curled up next to him and he pulled her close, ending with his arm around her and her head on his shoulder.  “You're still shaky too,” she said softly.

“Adrenaline. If I wasn't old, I'd kill every bottle of whatever you had. I'll make do with this.”

"Han –"

He sighed. “If it was just us in this, I'd give Chewie the Falcon, take you, and we’d go look for Luke until we found him, then go hide out on some pretty planet far away from here.”

She drew back to stare at his profile; was caught by the hard hazel eyes. “You don't mean that.”

“Right now, I wouldn't put money on whether I do.”

“Han -- “

“For the Force’s sake, how much more do we have to bleed for this galaxy?” He drained the glass and poured another. “Our son was going to kill me. You didn't look in his eyes – it wasn't Ben anymore.”

"Han, he's your _son_." Her voice broke, as it had when Luke had told them Ben had betrayed them all.

"He sure as hell didn't look at me like I was his father. I don't want to have to murder our own child, but -"

"It won’t come to that.”

“No? Then what? We watch the galaxy burn? C’mon, that’s not you talking, Leia. How many died at Hosnian Prime? You’re here, but you haven't seen all of it. It's worse in the Outer Rim, away from the Republic. Hells, it’s worse than it was under the Empire. The slavers are back. I’ve watched First Order troops do things the Imperials wouldn't.”

She closed her eyes. “I sent Poe to Jakku to get that ridiculous map. Remember Lor SanTekka?”

“The Force worshipper? I remember, he went with Luke years ago to find Jedi artifacts, when I couldn't. He was ready to make Luke into some kind of priest or something, right? Church of the Force.”

“He had it. When he wouldn't give it to the First Order strike force, they killed him, wiped out his whole village.”

He shook his head. "Bastards. Well, that's their style all right." Then he realized where she had hesitated, what she didn't say. "Wait…Kylo was there?” He drew back enough to look at her.

She nodded. "He ordered it. He tortured Poe too."

“And you thought _I_ could turn him?” Han asked incredulously. "Force almighty, Leia!"

“Luke turned _Vader_.”

“Oh, c'mon, Luke had his whole life wrapped up in this image of his father, he loved him. Luke willed it into being. And he still almost died. You know that.” Han closed his eyes. “This isn't Vader and Luke. Leia, I don't think there's any of Ben left. He told me that I was weak and foolish and that next time I wouldn't have a protector. I've seen bounty hunters look at me with less hatred. If Luke hadn’t jumped in, I’d be dead.”

"Han, he's our child." She choked on the words.

“Not anymore. He's thirty. He made his decision as an adult." He shook his head; he had worked through it now. "Damnit, you know this better than I do. He turned to the Dark Side and decided to destroy the galaxy along the way – I guess as payback to the three of us. He said he belonged with the First Order. We don't have a choice, we have to stop him.”

“You think I don't know that? I have fought every step of this war, without you and without Luke.” It was beyond accusation, simple fact now.  “You don't have to send them out. I sent Poe on a suicide mission. I sent _you_ on a suicide mission. I just thought…I don’t know what I thought. That there was a chance to bring Ben home." She shook her head in turn. "I keep thinking that it was all easier years ago.”

“It wasn't. We just had a few wins, we were younger. And we had no choice.” He scowled at the mug. “What’s in this stuff?”

She ignored the question, as usual. “You're tired, I'm tired. We’ve had a helluva few days.” She rubbed a thumb against his beard stubble, stroked back the grey hair from his eyes. "You really heard Luke?"

"It was him. Y'know how he says our names, it couldn't be anyone else." He leaned into her touch. "I could feel him, like he was there. It was like a storm blown’ through me. I'm watching Ben and Rey dueling and all I can feel is Luke, just out of reach." A short laugh.  "Rey's like fire – Ben was scared, I could see it. Hell, I was scared and I wasn't facing her over a lightsaber.”

“Luke’s ‘saber. How in hell?”

Han nodded. "I was about to ask Maz that when the First Order showed up. Rey found it in the underground passages. It called to her. Her words."  He poured and gulped down another hit.

“That girl. She's strong with the Force.”

“Yeah. I can feel it too – like what I feel when I’m around you or Luke. Which means it must be off the charts. She had that vision of Luke too."

“Did she tell you what she saw?" He described what he remembered and she held up a hand.  "She could have seen a holovid about us –“

"No. I'd forgotten until Finn mentioned it. He didn’t think it was Luke’s 'saber because it had a blue blade. All those holovids and pictures of us, it was all after Bespin, he had the green blade." He shook his head. "She knew me as a smuggler, not a rebel. She didn't know you at all. If she knew Luke from all those horrible holovids of our lives, she'd’ve known who you and I were. She and Finn didn’t believe Luke was real.”

"Then who is she?” Leia asked. "Not Luke's. I’d know if she were his."

“And we know where he was twenty years ago. Besides, even if he had fallen into bed with someone, c'mon, not tell us that? Or that he had a child? Luke? The guilt would've eaten him alive. And he wouldn't leave a child on Jakku. It's a hellhole. He wouldn't leave one anywhere, no matter what.”

"True. There were more Jedi alive.”

“And they’ve died in the meantime or were slaughtered by the First Order. I don't know. She said she was left on Jakku, before she was ten. She was a scavenger, stripping the downed ships and selling parts to Unkar Plutt, a sonuvabitch whose death would improve the galaxy. Who would do that to a child? Hell, maybe a Sith Lord.”

She smiled. “I wish Luke could hear us having this conversation.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “I actually told Finn at one point that was not how the Force works.”

“You didn't.” She started laughing. “No I'm sure you did.”

Han shrugged. “Luke told me to bring her, wherever he is. He might want to stay where he is to start training her.”

Leia shook her head. “No, if we do figure this out, you need to get back as soon as you can. There’s the chance the First Order was tracking you – you left the Falcon at Starkiller, plus at Maz's castle.”

“Your teams are checking the Falcon stem to stern – they’ll find any tracker. She’s in sad shape anyway –Needs fumigating at the least.” He shook his head, putting the past in its place. “Anyway, Chewie, Rey and I will find him.” He grinned. “If I can pry Finn away from Rey. We don’t need a bigger crowd.”

Leia smiled. “He was pretty obviously bonded to her.”

“I seem to remember another kid who was desperate to rescue a beautiful girl and conned me into going along. Finn’s lucky I have a long memory.”

She smiled. “Like you’d wouldn’t have gone along anyway. Again. Even without a reward.”

Han managed a laugh. “And I also don't think Poe’s gonna let him out of his sight either.”

“Han.”

“C’mon, Poe let Finn keep his squadron leader jacket. You saw them in the briefing, Poe was staring at him like a baby nerf at its mother. Finn’s got something for Rey, but I don't think he realizes yet about Poe.”

“If he can get Poe to not worry about flying or BB8, good for him." She sighed. "I can feel the Force with Finn too. Not as strong as Rey, but it's there.”

“He used the ‘saber at Maz’s, she gave it to him for a reason. And I’d like to know exactly how he broke that conditioning. That cannot have been easy.”

"True." She looked at her mug. “Stay here tonight. I want to keep you in sight.”

“Is that an invitation, Princess?” She hesitated and he shook his head. “Yeah, I know. Too soon.”

“I would love to.”

He met her eyes, trying to decide how serious she was. “Really?”

She sighed. “Soon. But not tonight. I want both of you back.”

He gave her the patented Solo crooked grin. “Oh, you do, huh? I think I can arrange that.”

She rolled her eyes, then nestled closer against him. “We need him back.”

“Yeah. We need to be together. Not wandering around in a daze because the other part of us is gone.” He drained the mug. "I didn't even want to bring you that map, I knew you didn't want to see me."

She met his gaze. "Han, no."

"Leia, every time you looked at me, I knew you saw Ben and everything that went wrong."

"Not want to see you? Han."

"Yes. C'mon, even when you saw me at Maz's, even as I was leaving for Starkiller."

"Yes." Her voice was cracked like glass and she closed her eyes in pain. "What happened to us? We used to be together as easy as breathing."

He stared into the empty mug. “Luke left, and all we had was misery. We couldn't keep it together with everything else battering at us. He’s the strength of the three of us – he brought us all together. We have to get him back and we have to get ourselves back. I'm not whole any more without you and Luke."  He felt Leia shudder under his arm. "I have a bad feeling that if we don't get ourselves back now, we may never get it back. It's hard as hell living without you and him.”

She closed her eyes. “I’m so sick of this fight, of having to carry the Republic. I’m sick of not having you and Luke here with me. What if we can't find him? That was the best lead I've had in ages."

"Why did Lor San Tekka even contact you? What the hell did he know?"

"Something about the Force growing stronger."

"I thought he was less sensitive than I am."

"You'd have to talk to Luke about that." She sighed. "I'm so tired. Of all of it. And you must be dead on your feet."

Han looked crosswise at her. "You could say that."

She winced when she realized what she had said. "Go get cleaned up, then I will. And you're staying here."

"Yes, Your Worship." He smirked, and when she whacked his arm, he laughed. She started laughing too and he closed his eyes. _Could we really get it back?_

"Fresher's that way. I think I have some of your things in with mine."

They started back to the small bedroom. Han cocked his head at the huge bed wedged into it. "That's ours….then that couch _is_ ours."

"I had them in storage after you left. Lando came to visit, picked them up from Hosnian Prime, and brought them here. Have you seen him lately?"

"About six months ago. Visited his daughter Tianna's new operation out in the Western Reaches and he was there. Still the old smoothie." He took off his jacket, threw it over the chair that was against the dresser.

Leia smirked. "He'll be flirting two weeks after he's in the grave." She ran a hand across the cracked leather of his jacket. "This thing is awful. I like you in a jacket, but not this."

"We've done a lot of work in the cold lately, and had a lot of tough cargo. Cloth won't stand up to it."

"It's ugly." She slid a hand down the front, caught the pocket. Pulling the picture out, she put a hand over her mouth.

He looked up from piling his gunbelt on her dresser at her sharp intake of breath. "Leia?"

She had the picture cradled in her hands. "I'd forgotten how happy we looked."

Han crossed the room in a stride, pulled her close. "Don't. Sweetheart, don't."

She let the picture fall to the bed and crumpled against him. "Damn it, we need to be together. I lie in that bed every night, worried that I'll wake up and feel that you're dead or Luke's dead – and you almost were today."

"I pray every night to whatever god might be inclined to listen that you two are safe." He stroked her hair, trying desperately not to cry himself as she sobbed one shaky breath.

"And if you had died? You think our son is dark?" Leia said suddenly, steel winning over pain.

"Leia, c'mon." He tried for a lighter tone, didn't manage it. "You wouldn't turn, you or Luke."

She shook her head against his chest. "You don't know that about either of us. If you had died at the First Order's hands? Do you think Luke and I wouldn't tear them apart?"

She drew a shaky breath. "I owe them already for everything they’ve taken from me. You, Luke, Ben. If they had killed you? I would show them who Vader's heir really is. I would rip Snoke's heart out of his chest with my bare hands." She met his eyes, saw his unease. "You think I wouldn't? Remember what I did to Jabba."

"I know you'd give them something to remember an old pirate by," he said carefully.

"I would _destroy_ them."

For a long moment, they stared at each other, Han struck silent by her confession, and the fact that she had avoided saying if Ben had killed him. "Leia," he finally managed.

She met his eyes and he saw her fury fade. "And then Luke would have to turn me back. And you know how he gets."

He caught her turn to grim humor with relief. "You'd never hear the end of it."

"No. Especially since I would be better at the Dark Side than he would be."

He smiled shakily. "That you would – you're used to being in charge."

"Damn right. And Luke has just too much goodness in him."

Han growled. "If you think I'm taking that bait…"

She shook her head. “We should have done that, you know. Taken over – Luke or I gone dark. You and Luke with me? We could have remade the galaxy, in just a few years. Then retired.”

He almost laughed. "I don't think it's that easy to come back.  But I always did like both of you in black."

"Oh, Luke would have brought me back. And you wouldn't be tempted."

"I was pretty dark when you two disrupted my life."

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "You were a smuggler, in a dangerous world. You weren't committing genocide."

"I killed a bounty hunter not ten minutes after Luke met me."

"Who was going to kill you. And barely a day later, Luke bats his big blue eyes at you and you come to my rescue."

He rolled his own eyes. "I'm a scoundrel remember?"

"Who fell for a knight and a princess."

Han mock scowled. "You two tamed me."

She laughed. "Tamed? You're even less scary than Chewie."

"If you know how to treat me right," he protested. "And hey, me and Chewie, we're pretty scary."

She pushed him towards the fresher. "Go, big scary pirate. Go get cleaned up."

They ended up curled around each other on the bed. "We have a lot to fight out, you know,” she sighed.

"Yeah. When we're stronger. When we have Luke back. We'll scream at each other then," Han sighed. "In the meantime, I've had a helluva day, you've had a helluva day. And if we'd held onto each other, maybe we wouldn't be here now."

She laid her head on his chest as she had done so many nights he had lost count years ago. "Shut up and go to sleep. You were always a lousy, grumpy sleeper."

He wove the end of her braid through his fingers. "You and Luke never complained when I got up early and brought back breakfast.”

"Mmm…we actually have a decent mess here. I'll treat you tomorrow."

 

Han jolted awake near dawn. An island, a pile of dark rocks in the middle of an endless ocean. _Luke…._

Before he could draw a clean breath, Leia woke with a start. "Luke!"

He sat up, pulling her with him. Her eyes were wild as he sought them in the dim light, and he caught her hands, balled into fists. "Leia!”

She drew a lungful of air. "Dream…."

He looked into her eyes. "An island."

She caught her breath at last. "Dark rocks, alone in an ocean."

He nodded. "He's there."

"Ahch-to," they said as one.

She slid a hand to his cheek. "You think –"

He nodded against her palm. "We both dreamed it, but neither of us have ever heard of it?" She confirmed his thought with a nod. "Then maybe Luke did send it to us."

The control room was on graveyard shift, a few techs monitoring First Order traffic, when they strode in, Leia moving to the panels to revive the projection tank.

"Do we need Artoo?" she asked, as the galactic survey map came to life.

"Not plotting it tonight, I just want to see the survey. If we can see it, we'll be sure." Han stared as Leia superimposed the merged maps.

"Where do you think it is?"

"I've never heard the name, so I'm thinking maybe east, at the other edge of the rim. There's a whole stretch of planets that don't have inhabitants or minerals or any reason for anyone to be there. From what I remember when Luke was out searching, that was where the Jedi and Sith temples usually were, out where no one else was. But the survey should just pull it up if it was charted. And if it has a name, it was."

Leia smiled. "Yes." The computer generated a glow around a small planet in at the eastern edge of the Outer Rim, far away from where Han usually operated. "Ahch-To. Survey has it as mostly water."

They both looked from the survey map at the sound of raised voices across the control room. Rey emerged from the darkness, Poe Dameron in tow. "I'm sorry, General, but she was insistent."

The pair stopped across the tank from them, Poe looking hungover, Rey looking as sure of herself as Han remembered her from Starkiller.

"Don't apologize, Poe. What is it, Rey?" Leia asked.

Rey stepped around the tank, looking up at the map. Then she looked at Han. "I didn't remember the name, but I…I keep seeing the island I dream of."

Han looked at Leia and read her thought without benefit of the Force. _Who is this girl and who is she to us?_ "Rey, what's this island look like?"

"Dark rocks in a large ocean."

He heard Leia's intake of breath echo his own. "And you saw it again tonight."

She nodded. "I…Poe said it would be all right to come find you."

"I thought if she had any kind of lead –"

"Of course," Leia said. "And she does. We had the same dream, Rey. Does Ahch-To sound familiar to you?"

She looked puzzled. "I…the name isn't familiar, but it is?"

Han managed a smirk. "Oh, yeah, she's definitely going to be a Jedi. That's an answer Luke would give for sure," he muttered to Leia.

Then Rey put a hand to her mouth, remembering. "But _he_ saw it too – took it out of my mind."

Solo blew air. "Kylo?" She nodded and Han looked at Leia. She closed her eyes in pain and he knew then that she was finally beginning to realize exactly how far Ben had gone from them. "Well, maybe he'll stay obsessed with the map instead."

"I doubt it," Leia said sharply. "In any case, if all of us dreamed it –"

"Luke did send it." He nodded at Leia, turned to Poe and Rey. "Rey, go back and try and sleep. Tomorrow, I'm going to give you your first lesson in hyperspace navigation."

She stared at him. "You're going to find Luke Skywalker?"

" _We're_ going to find Luke. He told me to bring you along. And if you're going to fly for the Resistance and Commander Dameron," he said, grinning at Poe, who was trying not to smile. "You're going to have to learn how to be a real space pilot, not whatever you cobbled together flying simulators. This will be lesson one. Years ago, I taught Luke how to plot a hyperspace course without a droid. So I'll teach you too."

"You'll get a lesson from the best," Poe added. "I'll bring her back in the morning."

Leia slid under Han's arm as they left the control room and wound back to her rooms. "You think Luke'll come back with you?"

"He'll come back. He has to, Leia." Han grinned, tried for a moment of levity. "I'll have Chewie throw him in the hold if he objects." 

 

The next evening, it seemed the whole base had assembled on the shipyard field to see them off. While the Resistance maintenance crews spent the day putting the Falcon back into running shape and loading supplies under Chewie's growling direction, Han and Rey plotted the way to Ahch-To. Han could see why it had been a feat – the course was littered with black holes and other anomalies to be navigated around, hostile non-aligned planets to be ducked. The fear that the First Order would beat them drove him, and he could feel his teeth grinding as Artoo ran the course through his banks, making sure it was true. Leia fretted around, checking with them even as she supervised the beginning of the base breakdown for moving to their backup. 

Unwilling to give the enemy an advantage, they decided to lift even after the tiring day. The first jump was routine so they had time to rest before the real work began. As the sun began sinking, they walked out toward the Falcon. Chewie was already onboard running preflight as Artoo rolled to the gangway. Rey had hung back, saying her goodbyes to the pilots, who had already adopted her. Han stopped midway to the ship, Leia beside him. One more goodbye, this time with more hope.

“Didn’t expect an audience." He smiled at Leia. “I can imagine if Luke was here to see this.”

She returned the smile. “We’d’ve had to push him out in front of them.” She caught her breath at the memories. “Go find him." She gestured at the crowd. “He’s a symbol now. He doesn’t belong to just us.”

Han lowered his head, looked at her. “No, he doesn't. But he's ours first. He can be the Master for the rest of them later.” He grinned. “And speaking of just for us.” He reeled her in and kissed her, to cheers led by Poe Dameron.

She pushed him back with a mock scowl. “Scoundrel.”

“Always. Luke’s the nice one.” He leaned in, almost whispered against her ear. “You were smart to take us as a package deal.”

She smirked and slid her cheek against his. “ _You_ were lucky to get _us_ , you insufferable pirate.”

“Don’t I know it.”

They turned as Rey clattered up. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She glanced at herself, all her possessions still able to fit in one bag. “Yes.”

“Did you tell Finn goodbye?” Leia prompted, seeing the ex-trooper finally fighting to the front of the ranks. Rey widened her eyes and turned to run to him.

“Are we sure Luke didn’t have any kids?” Han teased.

“Yes.” She slapped his leather jacket. "Look, you have to take care of her.”

“And I haven’t so far?" He threw his hands wide. "Besides, Chewie’ll be there too.”

“No crazy chances.”

“I don’t think Luke will be trying to kill me,” Han said archly.

“Be careful.”

“You too. I told Poe I'll have his hide if anything happens to you."

Leia looked skyward. "He doesn't need you to tell him to watch over me. He does fine by himself."

He smirked. "Yeah, but it's fun to encourage him. We’ll see you at Alcanhal.  Rey, let’s go!”

Leia pulled him back for another kiss, then caught Rey for a hug as she came alongside. “Rey, take care of yourself and this one I love -- on occasion.”

Solo looked skyward himself. “Don’t get all mushy on us, General.”

She rolled her eyes at Han, then smiled. “May the Force be with you.”


	3. Chapter 3

“You would be at the top of a damned mountain,” Han said sourly after he finally cleared the last steps to the top. Rey had made it up a few steps ahead of him and she had stopped, staring and speechless. But then Han shifted his gaze from her to Luke. Skywalker was in the grey and dun clothes that he had worn as the Jedi Master, but his beard was now grey and his hair grown long. Han was cataloging lines and time as he crossed to Luke; Luke moved as well and everything rushed back around them. The blue eyes closed a breath before Han pulled him into his arms. The connection that had tripped back to life days ago roared around them like the sea below. Easier than the first reunion with Leia; that relationship still fraught with all Ben had done to them. Han had no idea how long he held Luke close, only that it was reward for the punishment it had taken to get there.

_Missed you._

_Missed you too, kid._

_You can still hear me._

_Yeah. Like I could there._

In the world, he whispered one hand over Luke’s hair as the Jedi tightened both hands around his leather jacket.

_I dreamed he killed you and I never saw you again._

_You saved me. Again._

“Think we’re even now?” Luke said softly against his ear.

At the teasing tone, Han pulled back. “You sonuvabitch, you know how hard it was to find you?”

“Actually, I do. I see you got my message.” Luke stepped back, turned to greet his other visitor. “Hello, Rey. I’m Luke Skywalker.”

“Master Skywalker.“

“I've been in your head, Rey. And you saved this one for me.” He clapped Han on the shoulder. His mischievous grin made Solo grin in return. “Call me Luke.”

Rey wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she hadn't envisioned the mythical Jedi Master with laughing blue eyes and a teasing tone. Luke was not as tall as Han but the same rangy type, with a strength she could sense. If he was dressed in a hooded cloak as she imagined he should be, the way he had wrapped himself around Han was another surprise.

“I brought you this.” She stepped up, pulling the lightsaber out of her bag and handing it over. He took the ‘saber with the prosthetic hand, casually flipping it so that the blade pointed away as he ignited it.

“Remember that scratch?” Han asked softly, struck by Luke's grin, the way the blade turned his eyes a familiar shade of blue he hadn't seen in so long. “That's when I was sure. I put it there, taking it off your belt that night on Hoth."

“Saving me. Where did you get this, Rey?”

She followed the track of the blade as he moved it through a pattern. “Han took me to Maz Kanata’s castle – it was in a box down in the underground passages. It…called to me.”

“Did it?" His gaze was penetrating; now he looked like the wizard she'd imagined. "Let's get inside – rain’s going to blow in soon," he said, shutting down the blade. "Then you can tell me.”

Han hung back to let Rey follow at Luke's heels. They took a twisting path up to a dark grey stone building, small and half built into the cliff. In an odd way, it reminded Han of the stone buildings of Tatooine, an impression not changed when they went inside. It was sparsely furnished, damp and cold, even though there was modern equipment scattered about. Solo realized that those parts must have been from the ship Luke had come in. _He’s spent five years here?_

The small single room had only three places to sit: a bed, a chair and a stone ledge below the one window. Han steered Rey to the chair and then perched himself on the ledge. Luke sat on the bed and Han tried not to stare. Luke had changed so much from the boy from Tatooine in the years they had been together and he had changed again – the Jedi Master he had been when he had left them was a thin veneer over the man he was now. For a second, the blue eyes looked stricken – Han remembered the night he had left; the cracks were still there. If Leia had changed, if Han himself had, grown old and torn without their bond, summoning who they used to be for each other, Luke was doing the same. _If we don't come back together, we won't have anything left._ Then Luke's Jedi control as a Jedi reasserted itself and he managed a slight smile.

“So it called to you?" Luke, said, carefully set the hilt down on the table next to the chair, before he brought his sharp focus back to Rey. "You had a vision?”

Rey nodded, making herself hold those uncanny eyes.

“What did you see?”

She shot a glance at Han and he nodded at her, encouraging her. “I saw you, fighting at Cloud City, against Darth Vader. I didn't know it was you – Han told me, when I described it to him.” She recounted the rest, ending, to Han's surprise, with her memory of being left on Jakku as a child.

“The last battle of the war was at Jakku – above it. And I have a friend who lives there." He threw a sideways glance at Han. "What is it with you and desert children?”

“Beats the hell out of me.”

Rey supposed she must have looked as puzzled as she felt, because Luke smiled then and she saw why Han’s voice changed when he spoke of Skywalker. There was a kindness and spark to him. “I’m from Tatooine - it's a desert world like Jakku. Han met me there.”

“I told her when we got back, the three of us will tell her the story," Han put in.

“Back where?”

“The Resistance."

Luke's eyebrows went up in question.

"Leia never could get the New Republic to take action against the First Order. They didn’t budge. So," Han said, sounding wry, "she started another rebellion.”

“She?“ Luke said, zeroing in on the pronoun.

“I was there at the start." Han cleared his throat. "Anyway, I found this one and her friend Finn – or they found me and Chewie. We ended up at Maz’s and the First Order attacked. Led by Kylo Ren.”

“He kidnapped me,” Rey added, and watched Luke's expression harden.

“Why was he after you, Rey?”

“She saw a map, well, part of a map, to you,” Han said softly.

“A map to….from where?”

“Who. Lor San Tekka.”

“What? How?”

Han stared at Luke's puzzled expression. “You didn’t send it to him?”

“Why would I? I knew when the time came, I'd send the planet to you and Leia. Why would I send Lor San anything? He must have put together a map to the first temple from the work we did. He sent it to Leia?”

Han blew out a breath. “She sent Poe Dameron to get it. But when he got there, the First Order showed up, slaughtered Lor San and the rest of his people.”

“No.” Luke closed his eyes in pain and bowed his head. “They… Lor San…they weren't any threat.”

“Tell that to the First Order. Poe got the map into his droid, which ended up with Rey and her friend Finn.”

Luke shook his head sadly. “So you had this map allegedly to me. And Ren wanted it.”

“This is where the fun begins." Han gave him a crooked smile. "The First Order somehow put themselves together their own Death Star, called Starkiller. Rey got taken planetside to where the shield generator was, and the Resistance sent me, Chewie and Finn, to take it out.”

“So that’s the base I saw you at. Snowy forest outside?”

“Yeah." He leaned forward, intent. "I _heard_ you, Luke! We both did - how the _hell_ did you find us?”

Luke's mouth thinned. “Like Rey, I had a vision. I felt - earlier in the day -- so much death.”

“Starkiller's first attack destroyed Hosnian Prime.”

“Like Alderaan?”

“Worse than Alderaan," Han said grimly, and Luke's eyes went wide. "The whole system – five planets.  We had to stop it before they got the Resistance. We found Rey when we got into the base – expected to have to break _her_ out but she had already escaped. Then Ben – Kylo -- found us.”

Luke took a deep breath in and out, and nodded. “That's where I saw you – you walked out on that gantry bridge. He…drew you to him, then ran you through with his ‘saber. You were dead before you fell."

Han squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He'd known that, somehow, like a waking bad dream, carbonite all over again, but hearing Luke say it drove it home hard.

"You offered him a chance to come home," Luke went on, evenly, "and he struck you down, went fully to the Dark Side. I woke to you dying, to Leia feeling it as well. Then I saw Rey fighting him with my old lightsaber.” He drew a slow, deliberate breath. “I had just enough time to find you, Han, and use you as an anchor to reach Rey. I knew she had the ability to stop it, with my help.”

Rey looked from one to the other, bewildered at how calmly they were discussing this. “But how?”

“The power of the Force. You have the ability, Rey. Han has always had a touch and that's gotten stronger. The Force is rising faster now, more powerful than it's been since Endor.”

“You came to save me again.” Han's voice was a little rough.

Luke looked straight at him. “Because I always will, you know that. Kylo was going to kill you and finish his journey to the Dark Side with your blood on his hands. I’d die myself before I let that happen. You’ve fought for the Light since we all found each other.”

“Because of you and Leia."

Luke's eyes blazed. "Your legacy in the Force is as a champion of the Light, as our protector. It’s not to send your son to the Dark Side. We’ve already lost so much - I _will not_ lose you too.”

Han caught a ragged breath and crossed the small room in a stride, pulling Luke up into his arms. He bowed his head next to Luke’s; felt him shaking. Or maybe that was himself, he couldn’t tell.

“This is not how we end," Luke said, and his voice was darker than Han had ever heard it. "We end together – you come to the Force with Leia and me, not alone. None of us alone.”

Rey realized that she hadn’t breathed when her lungs demanded air. She had never heard anyone speak like this.

For a long moment, nobody moved.

Then the Jedi Master shook his head a little as if clearing it and gently pulled back from Han, but only to arms’ length. He kept one hand on Han's arm as he looked at them both. “I’ve been overwhelmed by a recurring vision for the last month or so, over and over – Han, Leia and myself, before Supreme Leader Snoke. About to attack him.” The brilliant blue eyes fixed on Rey. “And one more with us I could never see clearly until now. You, Rey.”

“Me?”

Luke looked up at Han. “You remember the night I left? I told you that you would bring me my next knight.”

Han caught his breath as the memory crashed to the surface. “Yes.”

“What do you mean?” Rey looked from one to the other.

Luke drew a breath. “Five years ago, the night before I left to come here. I told Han he would bring me my next knight. That would be you.”

Han looked at her. “Tell Luke how you escaped.”

“I told the stormtrooper guarding me to let me go.” She shrugged then looked confused when Luke stared at her. “Kylo Ren tried to tell me what to do – I just did what he did.”

Luke shook his head. “You’re already ahead of where Ben was when he started. And you’ve seen the horrors of the Dark Side. He only had our stories.”

Han sighed wearily. “There’s not much Ben left. I crossed him a few times as Kylo but I hadn’t seen him without the mask until he took it off at Starkiller. Not a trace of Ben – I’ve never seen such pure – hatred - in anyone’s eyes. They weren’t even his eyes. They weren't yellow, like you used to tell us about the Sith lords, but it was like someone else was in there.”

Luke shut down the traitorous thought that once Ben had hit adolescence, Luke had had trouble seeing him as Han and Leia’s child. Ben had inherited their ferocious tenacity and both of their tempers - a curse at best - but little of their humor or drive for the Light. He was so different from his parents that Luke wondered on occasion if the old stories told on Tatooine about dust devils coming to life and taking children, leaving changelings in their place, were true. Those last months before the massacre, Ben had turned subtly and Luke would curse himself until death for missing the signs.

“The Dark Side will claim your soul – you have no idea of the power…" Luke felt the decades' old touch of electricity up his spine; even now the memories of his fight with Palpatine were strong. "Snoke is powerful – I can sense him out there.”

Luke turned his gaze full on her and Rey at last saw what she had conjured a Jedi Master to be. “The ways of the Jedi will get you killed or worse, Rey," he said. "And believe me, there is worse.”

She met his gaze with all the defiance and self-reliance she had learned in her short, hard life. “Do you think this is my path?”

“That’s not a question for me. That’s a question for you. You have to _want_ this. I can’t want it for you, I can’t hand it to you.

"Han will tell you how hard I worked, what I denied myself to learn the ways of the Force. I lost my hand, I lost my faith in myself and damn near my life, several times over. Han and Leia – there aren't words for what they are to me and yet I almost lost them too. I couldn't stop their son from taking the quick and easy path, the one that leads straight to the Dark Side. The way of the Jedi, the path of the Light, is difficult. It has rewards beyond what you can comprehend, but if you falter, you can slip to the Dark Side and it can destroy you.”

“My whole life has been a struggle, every day! I'm ready!” she protested.

 _Back it off, Luke._ Han's thought slipped into Luke's mind. _She'll only fight you harder if you keep that up, she's as stubborn as you ever were._

Luke sighed. “I thought I was ready too. I was wrong. It’s not an easy or fast decision, Rey. It’s one that will change your life.”

 

The rain blustered in over the island, making the dwelling even chillier. Luke assembled something to eat, and Han steered the conversation onto less deadly ground. They regaled Rey with stories of their exploits, from their meeting in a Tatooine cantina on. Han felt the grinding pain of the last few years ease somewhat as they managed to find some of their less horrifying moments.

Rey watched the two men banter back and forth, easy and open in a way she had never seen with anyone on Jakku. The Jedi Master seemed starved for new stories and Han obliged him, telling the tale of finding Rey at Starkiller, of Finn insisting he could get them into the base.

"You flew _in_ at light speed?" Luke and Rey echoed each other, and she was startled at the wink he gave her before he continued. "I always knew you were crazy."

"He flew _out_ of a hangar at light speed!" Rey exclaimed. "Then you flew…"

Han shrugged broadly, and his smirk made him look like the pilot Luke first met. "We had to get through the shields to get to the base. And I didn't have any Ewoks around. Just Finn, who had forgotten to mention the fact that he had just moved up from sanitation to ground assault and didn't know thing one about getting the shields down." The smirk broadened into a grin. “Then he tells me we’ll use the Force. I told him that's not how the Force works.”

Luke burst out laughing and Rey caught how Han’s grin got bigger. It took Luke a minute to wind down. “I would have loved to have been there for that.”

"I would have loved to have had you along," Han said, meeting his gaze and Rey watched them stare at each other for a long moment, before Luke closed his eyes and Han sighed. "So then, Finn finds his old captain…"

 

“He’s outside,” Rey said from somewhere under a mound of blankets as Han dragged himself out of his own nest of them across the room.

“I know,” Solo said softly. “Just gonna go talk to him.”

“It’s freezing – I thought he said he was from a desert world like me. How does he stand it? It’s colder than Jakku at night.”

“It's the humidity from the sea. This is like Corellia, my homeworld.” He hadn’t thought of it as home for almost as long as Luke had been alive.

“Han?”

He stopped at her soft question. “Yeah, Rey?”

“What do you think I should do?”

A minefield. He fervently wished he could come up with a flip answer, but there was none to be had. Even in the dim light from the moon through the window, he could read her apprehension, the question churning through her mind. “Rey, it’s your decision.”

“But I don’t know. I…I only have stories. You’ve been there. You’ve been around the Jedi.”

“A couple,” he said, smiling. “Luke wanted to be one, as long as I’ve known him. But Leia has the same power and declined. Luke taught her some things, but she never went further. Then my son – well, you’ve met the end result of that.”

She sat up, pulling the blankets around, and he sat next to her on the bed. “I’ve gone back and forth. If I have a gift, why shouldn’t I? He’s foreseen I become a knight. And it’s hardly worse than where I was.”

“True. Still, your call. You could still go.”

“I can’t run. Where would I even go? Maz said the belonging I seek is ahead of me. I know she meant all of you.”

“Rey, if I could bundle Luke and Leia and Chewie on a ship and escape, I sure as hell would.”

“No, you wouldn't,” she said, shaking her head. “You say that but you don’t mean it. Just like you didn’t want to bring the map but you did.”

He sighed, looking at her, reminded anew of Luke. “Yeah. I say that but you’re right. Luke, Leia and I, we’re in this. We have to fight.” Han closed his eyes. “And I’d rather die at their side, than be a slave under the First Order. You’re not old enough to remember the Empire and from what I’ve seen of the First Order, they want to be worse. I’m sure Snoke would love nothing more than to capture us and parade us around in chains, the heroes of the old Rebellion under his heel. The horrifying thing is that I think my son would be more than happy to oblige him.” He looked at her, summoned his crooked grin. “If you'd taken Chewie and me up on our offer at Maz’s, we coulda gotten out while the gettin’ was good.”

“And miss all this?" Rey tried out an imitation of his cynical tone and he half laughed. "I have a future, now," she said, more seriously. "And I saw you with the general, I see you with Master Luke. You look so much more …at peace.”

Han sighed. “Rey, no matter what you decide, I hope you find someone the way I found them.” He stood, pulled some of the blankets from his bed and draped them over her. “Go back to sleep if you can. If you’re serious about training, you’re gonna need all the rest you can steal.”

As she had said, Luke was outside. The moon near full and the stars seemed breathtakingly close, giving enough light that he could pick his way down the cliffside to the Jedi, who was sitting against a low stone wall, looking out to sea.

“Knew you’d wake up,” Luke said in greeting. “You never slept much even when we were all together.”

Han lowered himself gingerly to sit next to Luke, pulled one of the blankets he had brought along around him. He had lost count a few hundred worlds ago of how many times they had ended up outside some base, sitting next to each other and looking at the stars. “No, never did. Poor Rey asked how you take this cold.”

“Don’t notice it so much any more.”

“Liar. C’mere.” He slid an arm and the other blanket around Luke’s shoulders and they fell into a familiar embrace, the Jedi’s head against Solo’s shoulder. He had missed touching both Luke and Leia so much, everything flooded in in sensory overload. He reeled the Jedi in for a kiss, as he had wanted to do since they arrived. Slow, searching, finding. “Missed you. I’da kissed you when I got here, but I do want to keep a few illusions for Rey.”

Luke smiled. “So she saw you kiss Leia.”

“Yeah.” He settled with Luke against him. “Why I care, I have no idea. Our lives are shit otherwise. Worse than. If you’d told me that I’d have a son who would defect to the First Order? I’d’ve laughed in your face. He tortured Rey, and for the Force’s sake, Poe Dameron.”

Luke sighed. “Don’t forget what Vader did to me and Leia. To you.”

“And how many times did we tell him that? Our child, Luke. Mine and Leia’s and yours just as much. It’s not like we never told him about the Dark Side, about the hell we went through.”

“Han, I can’t even begin to know what’s gone wrong. I told him over and over about what his grandfather had been through, but Snoke must’ve told him that we lied, or that Anakin betrayed his calling by saving me. Ben said you were weak and foolish. Foolish, maybe.” Luke said, trying for a moment of levity and Han grinned sourly.

“What did Kenobi say that day?”

“ ‘Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?’ ” Luke could still do a bang-on imitation of the old knight.

“Do you see them anymore?” Han asked. He'd come to believe in Luke's ghosts, though it still rattled him even now.

“My father from time to time. Ben on occasion. Yoda has gone beyond.”

“Think grandfather Anakin can go haunt Ben?” Han smirked at the thought.

“I think only I can see him – I’m the only one who believed in him. I’ll ask if I see him again. Kylo wants to be Vader. Anakin would be appalled.” Luke shook his head.

“I’d like him to tell Leia she was weak. She’d knock him out. He can dish it out but he can’t take it too well. He folded when Rey caught him with the ‘saber. Or you did.”

“Both of us," Luke said. "I pushed her, was with her, but even untrained…. I’m sure he wanted her power. She's already strong with the Force.”

Han nodded. “I knew if I could feel it, she had to be strong. She’s still trying to decide what to do. But I’m sure it’s going to be yes.”

They listened to the waves crashing on the rocks below for a long minute.

“I’m not even sure if I can train anyone again.” Luke spoke so softly that Han almost, _almost_ missed it under the swirl of the wind.

“I don’t think you have a choice, Luke," he said, his mouth against the tangled gray hair. “I don’t think any of us ever did.”

A moment later, he felt Luke begin to shake. Startled, Han opened his mouth to ask but before he got the words out, Luke laughed all the harder. “Listen to you, Captain ‘I Make My Own Destiny’!" Luke finally got out. "What happened?”

“Spent too many years around you Force people, that’s what,” Han said, only half in jest. “You’re the ones bangin’ on about fate and destiny.”

"Oh gods," Luke chuckled, finally winding down. “Speaking of fate, where the hell did she come from?”

“She was left on Jakku, she’s not from there – her accent definitely isn't from there but she says she’s been alone for years." Han shrugged. “She brought the Falcon back, she and Finn.”

“Brought the Falcon back?“

“Got stolen out from under me and Chewie nearly a year ago. So we stole someone else’s ship. Anyway, the Falcon ended up on Jakku.“  He described the whirlwind last days. “So I don’t know. Don’t know how Ben recognized your ‘saber or why in hell Maz had it.“

Luke looked at him dubiously. “Why did anyone have it? I thought it dissolved in the atmosphere over Bespin.”

“I did too. Sure as hell don’t know why Rey dreamed of your island here or had those visions. Unless you’ve been holding out on us?”

“She’s, what, 20?” Luke smirked at him. “I remember very clearly who I was sleeping with twenty years ago and one of them is sitting next to me.”

“Well, that’s what we thought. But she’s not yours, not ours – “

“I had a whole school of Force sensitives who weren’t related to us. And I said it that night – you’d bring me my next knight.”

Han closed his eyes. “Atone for my son.”

“No. I refuse to accept that.” Luke shook his head. “In any case, I honestly don’t care. She’s got potential. She was the one piece in my visions I was missing.”

“Then you have to train her.”

“Han, I don't know -- ”

"Like I said, I don't think you've got a choice. Ain't like she can unlearn what she already knows, and she ain't gonna get left alone if she decides she doesn't want in the game. She’s gotta learn to defend herself from the Dark Side, at the least. If you don’t train her, Ben and Snoke will get their claws in and then....”

“I _know_. I know all that and – “

Han sighed. “Luke, she said it to me herself, it’s not like she had better ahead. You can try and scare her all you want, but her life really was hell before she got here. She was a scavenger, stripping wrecks from the battle for parts. If she didn’t get hurt or killed just working in those ships, eventually somebody’d decide to remove the competition. Surprised some slaver didn’t get her – they’re back in the Outer Rim. She’s pretty if you dressed her up, not that they’d care. A human woman with all her limbs and teeth? Last one we ripped off from a slaver and set free was going for 20,000 credits and that was two years ago.”

“What the hell have you been doing?” Luke pulled back to look at him clearly. There was a hard edge to Han he hadn’t seen in years.

Han turned his head away, looking out to the horizon. “Back smuggling, back where I was when you met me. It’s even worse. Can’t win, can’t break even, can’t even quit the game. It’s worse than the Empire.” The hazel eyes closed. “You’ve been here, Leia’s with the Resistance. You don’t know what it’s like for all those we tried to save. I’ve seen small time hoods shot for even trying to bribe the First Order. Kids sold into slavery, into the stormtroopers. Rey’s friend Finn was a stormtrooper. Doesn’t know his family. What they did to Lor San and the rest of his people is just another afternoon's work.”

“They weren’t any threat, Han.“

“Tell Ben that – he ordered it. I guess now that he’s missed killing his old man, he’ll really be on fire to kill his uncle. Why did Lor San even have a map to you?”

“He had part of the map to the temple here. Why he picked now to send it to Leia? I don't know – the Force is stronger than it has been but he never had a strong connection to it. He had one part of the map. Artoo had the middle to Tatooine, that’s all I’d plotted before I left." Luke's mouth quirked. "Don't ask me why Artoo decided to shut down, I haven't a clue. Maybe he was mad at me too. I knew when I needed to come back that I could reach Leia and send her this planet’s name – I knew it was on the survey. I was ready, after the horror I felt through the Force. I went to sleep that night, knowing I had to make the effort to get to Leia. But I woke up to your death, so when I reached you and Rey, I gave you both this planet. I reached Leia after I recovered from saving you. I knew you could plot the course if you had the end.”

Han caught his breath. “Helluva chance, Luke. I remember looking at the map, thinking I knew the last planet but I couldn't get it to surface until Leia and I both dreamed of it. What I can't figure out is why Rey's always dreamed of this island too.”

"That, I can't explain." Luke shrugged. "I thought you’d be with Leia, not smuggling. Why _aren’t_ you?”

“I left about six months after you did. Leia didn’t want to see me – every time she looked at me, I knew all she saw was Ben and what he’d done.” He sighed. Even after almost settling it with Leia, it still hurt to remember her eyes.

“Han, no. She loves you.”

"And she loves you and I love her and I love you. So why are you here? Love didn't do us a damn bit of good, did it?" Han closed his eyes. "You weren’t there for the nightmare. Everything went. The Senate just came unglued after the attack on the Jedi. Then you vanished, there were rumors when Ben’s body didn’t turn up with the rest and the press brought up all the same ‘Vader’s blood’ misery we’d been through years ago…it was a horror show. Leia tried to get them to fight the First Order, no one listened. Snoke’s a smart bastard. He not only has Ben, but he uses that to rip the three of us apart. She resigned from the Senate. We started another rebellion, but she kept looking at me, and I looked at myself. Ben gone, and you gone too.”

Skywalker winced. “I didn’t want to go but if I hadn’t, it would have been worse, I think.”

“In a way, it was better that you did. They were howling for your blood for awhile there. As if you’d attacked the place instead of being ambushed. I might have, uh, hurt a few journalists. If I was ever respectable, that was gone.” Han drew a cleansing breath. “So, I went back to what I was before you and Leia came tearing through my life. I was good at smuggling, once upon a time.”

“You were also good at saving the Rebellion and certain members of it, as I recall.”

Han looked away from Luke’s too-perceptive gaze. “I figured I could at least find out what was going on with the First Order. Make sure that Ben really was Kylo Ren.” He shook his head. “I sent intel to Leia when I could, got sold lots of maps to the missing Luke Skywalker, which are a tenth-credit a dozen in the Outer Rim. Got into bar fights when people insulted the Jedi.”

Luke half smiled. “Seriously?”

“You know how many stories there are? It’s not like we were famous that long ago. And the galaxy’s forgotten us in less time than it takes to tell. You’re a myth – that’s what Rey told me on the way here. She thought you were just a story.”

“Me?” Luke laughed shortly. “A myth?”

“Finn knew me as a Rebellion general, but Rey knew me as a smuggler. They didn’t believe I knew you. Finn said that 'saber couldn’t be yours because your blade was green. Remember? All the holovids, the histories, all used the green blade. Rey? She’s like me. If we didn’t get dragged into the affairs of the galaxy, we’d be dead in a gutter and no one would care.”

“Han – “

“And you too, Luke. If you’d never gotten the droids, really been your uncle’s child? The galaxy just grinds on. Instead, Rey saves a droid, next thing she knows, she’s stealing my ship and picking up your lightsaber. Ask her if she regrets it. Think I ever regretted getting involved with you and Leia? Chewie and I would’ve probably bought it in some two credit skirmish with the Imperials. Maybe Jabba would’ve fed us to the Rancor one afternoon. Instead, I fell in love with a princess and a Jedi knight, helped you bring down the Empire. Me, an orphan from a Corellian back alley.” Han grinned sourly. “Of course, now my son is currently terrorizing the galaxy but hey, it doesn’t all work out.”

“So it’s better to die in a war?”

“As opposed to starving? You’ve been poor, you have some idea. I’ve starved, so’s Rey – I can tell. I’ll pretty much take anything short of torture to starving. Your father was a slave. You know anything's better than that.”

“When the hell did you become a social reformer?” Luke stared in shock at Han’s hardened gaze.

“When I went from the top back down to the bottom. Back at the mercy of everyone else instead of being in charge. When I saw a small time hustler killed slowly by the First Order, and the whole bar look away, including me, because Chewie and I didn’t have the odds to stop it. It’s damn hard to be back at the bottom and know that you’re partially responsible for the misery of the galaxy.”

“You and Leia are not responsible for Ben becoming Kylo Ren,“ Luke snapped.

 “Neither are you. Han snapped back, just as hard. "He made his choice. But we waited too long. Leia tried to stop it in the Senate, you tried with the Jedi, I supported you both, we fought with everything we had. Now you’re a myth, I’m a smuggler, Leia’s general in a losing war, and the Resistance is almost all that’s left of the New Republic.”

Luke watched the hazel eyes go brown gold as the sky had started to slowly brighten towards sunrise.

"It's not just the galaxy calling us." Han's baritone dropped to its lowest tones. "Leia and I miss you. We _need_ you. You need us. It's been a nightmare without the two of you. I put one foot in front of the other, get to another day, and that's it. I can see it in your eyes, you're doing the same. So's Leia. We love each other. We should have pulled together, not pulled apart." He dragged a hand over his eyes.

The knight closed his own eyes. "I…it's hard, all alone here. Miss everyone. Miss the galaxy. Miss flying." He shivered. "'S so cold here."

Han crushed him closer when Luke's voice broke. "For the Force's sake, Luke, this isn't you. You're not Yoda. Hell, you're not even Ben Kenobi. You shoulda told us t'come get you years ago."

"I wouldn't have gone back with you then." He drew in a shaky breath, remembering. "It took a long time to work through my anger, to find the Force again."

Han pressed a kiss against the greying hair. "You could have stayed with us."

"I wanted to but they'd've hounded us to death." Luke leaned into Han's stroke of his hair. "The press, the Senate, the elites. They hated us anyway. You never picked up on it like Leia and I did."

Han barked a sharp laugh. "Who was the criminal in our little group? Ya think I didn't notice the way they stared at me? Didn't hear the digs about the smuggler corrupting the princess and the knight? C'mon."

Luke drew a shaky breath. "Miss you and Leia most of all. Every day. Every night."

"You think we don't miss you?" Han's own growl was wet. "We need you back."

"Han, don't you think I want to come back? But what if –"

"What if what? You're not turning to the Dark Side. Leia and I were even kidding about it. She said if I'd died, she'd've gone dark."

Luke drew back to look at him. "You think we wouldn't?"

"You're kidding." Han caught his breath. "You too?"

Skywalker stared at him. "You think we care so little for you? If you died – "

"Luke, you wouldn't –"

He scowled. "You honestly think that Leia and I would just go blithely on, just fight the First Order? Try and bring Ben back? You have more faith in me than I have in myself."

"You brought _Vader_ back –"

"My _father_. The father I couldn't kill. See the problem now? If Ben had killed you, I don't want to think what I would have done. What Leia would have done." He shook his head. "We are always close to the Dark. My father fell because of my mother. For Leia and me, it would be you."

Han felt the ice of the wind around them both. Luke's eyes met his and he saw the plain truth of the declaration. "Luke, you can't go Dark. Not you."

The Jedi smiled sadly. "If you were taken from us? If I hadn't seen you again?" He drew a breath. "Ben owes me already. Take you too?"

"Leia thought there was still good in him."

"She's his mother, of course she believed that. But if he'd killed you? I doubt she still would. I know I wouldn't."

 "You can't think that's what I'd want you two to do, if I died. Turn Dark? No. Go take out part of the First Order in my honor, but go to the Dark Side? I don't want you two down in hell with me."

"Hell might not be so bad. Compared to what we've been through the last few years, it'll probably be a relief." Luke resettled against his shoulder. "But even if we all end up in hell, you'll be with us. We'll always be together."

"You have to come back with me." Han bowed his head. "Nothing's made sense or been right since we came apart. With us and with the galaxy." He sighed. “We can’t stay away, Luke. I’d like to take Chewie home, then take you and Leia, find a safe haven, find ourselves again, somewhere far away. Let the whole damned galaxy burn. It’s what it deserves.

"But we can’t. You can’t, I can’t, Leia can’t. You’ve got to train Rey, we have to get the Resistance into shape, because we’re going to be too old soon, and Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron and his flyers are going to be what’s left. And if they don’t make it, if somebody doesn’t make it --”

Luke sighed in turn. "There'll be nothing but misery for the beings that we fought to protect."

“We have to go forward and fight back. That kid we all raised, he won’t stop – he inherited that much from Leia and me. And Snoke is going to take his talent and use it against us. He already has.”

The Jedi looked thoughtful. “Or Snoke's going to take his power and then crush him. That’s what you said in the vision I had, and I thought how in hell did you know that, but maybe you picked up on it subconsciously. That might be part of your talent in the Force.”

Han rolled his eyes. "Luke, you have got t’be kidding with that. I don’t have any talent – how many times did you and Leia argue about that?”

“My sister is many things but an expert on the Force is not one of them. I’m the Jedi Master, remember?” He said it with teasing affection.

Solo ruffled his hair. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Seriously, though, you talked to me, telepathically, over how many parsecs? And you think you don’t have it?”

Han refocused on the blue eyes, incredulous. “You really heard me?”

“Oh, yes. I felt your death, and then when I searched for you, I felt you as clearly as if you were right next to me. And I heard you call, which means you sensed me reaching for you. _That_ was new. Clearer than it used to be even when we were all together. I used you as the anchor to reach Rey.”

“How did you do that at all?”

Luke shook his head. “I might be able to show you, up at the temple. I can’t explain it in words, there aren’t words for it. It’s like being in the ocean but able to channel the tide. The Force had ebbed from me after the massacre, but here, I found it again.” He sighed at Han’s dubious expression. “Look, the same way you fly so well. Think of it like that.”

“I’ll never get this.”

“You fly like no one else. That’s not all training, that’s instinct and nerve and connection to your ship and space itself. Your luck, your skill – it’s just another way of the Force. I learned that here. I should have taught you a long time ago, and Leia too. Insisted on it.”

“C’mon, Luke, I thought Yoda said you were too old when you were in your twenties.“

Skywalker snorted. “So you do remember a few things. No, you’re not too old and neither is she, not for the basics. And you’re both carrying ‘sabers, no arguments. The Ren don’t respect anything else.”

“I might as well just bash someone with a stick. I’ll never be able to do what you do,” Han said grumpily.

“You don’t need to deflect blaster bolts, but you’ll need one to face your son and his gang.”

Han scowled. “So that’s what you see? Me taking on my son, with a lightsaber? I really will get run through.”

“It’s not all clear. I see the four of us, before Snoke. I don’t see beyond that. But I can sense that the Supreme Leader believes we can take him. That’s why he’s been after us.”

“Who in the hell is he? We never even heard his name until the First Order rose up, in all the fighting we did. He can’t have just…hatched.”

Luke almost smiled. “There’s old legends, about Sith Lords who survived even death. It’s possible he predates the Emperor but we never heard of him because he was under another name, or was somewhere we couldn’t find him.”

“Great. Exactly what we need.”

Luke cocked his head, and Han looked at him. Before he could ask, he heard feet on the stone path.

“You’re so loud.”  Rey skitterstepped down the last meters to stand before them. Han thought a minute and kept his arm around Luke. She had to know sooner or later, if she was to train with Luke and be that close to them.

"You couldn't hear us over the wind," Luke said. “You’re hearing us with your mind. Han was never that good at shielding and I’m out of practice.”

“My mind – “ she sighed. “Well, that’s only the tenth most unbelievable thing I’ve had to accept in the last few days.” She sat down so that she was the third point of the triangle.

“So you seem to have decided?”

She met Skywalker's eyes. “Am I strong enough to be a Jedi?”

“Yes. You have the potential to be a very powerful Jedi. But it has to be your choice.”

“I've thought on it, and yes, it is my choice. I can't waste this chance."

Luke carefully sat up and away, even though Han kept a hand on Luke's arm. "Rey, it's not a requirement to join the Resistance. From what Han says, you're a great pilot. You can serve that way."

"You were both. The stories said so. I want to be too. I can feel…that this is my path. If I can be a Jedi, then I should be. I can't waste this." She lowered her head. "If I had your knowledge, I would have saved Han myself."

"Look at me, Rey." Her head came up and she met those wizard eyes again. As the sun rose, his eyes turned almost crystal. "I hope you never have a vision of your friend Finn tortured, the way I had of Han. Ask him about Cloud City one day."

"Get me drunk first," Han muttered.

"I need to do this!" Rey's voice was pure conviction.

Luke smiled then. “Then you will. We'll start at the temple." He stood up stiffly, shook it off, then extended a hand to Han. "C'mon. You too."

Han mock scowled at him as he stood. "Can we get some food first? I'm betting it's a hike."

Luke laughed, slung an arm around Han's neck. "You've known me too long."

“What can I say?” Han shrugged and smiled at Rey. “Told you, Rey, you’d figure it out as you go. We’ll all figure it out together.”

At full light, they hiked up from Luke’s shelter to the temple, which was a small field of lush green in a semi-circle of high rock walls that opened to the rising sun, with scattered piles of what might have been pillars, toppled over and worn by rain and wind. Rey wandered to the edges, head thrown back to the rain drenched wind that swept over them. Han stayed by Luke, drinking in the sight of the Jedi’s smile as they walked side by side on the path among the rocks.

“You should feel something here.”

Han was ready to raise his usual objection but as the wind rose from the sea, he felt it steal across his skin, even under his jacket. “There's an old sacred spot on Corellia, a shrine to old gods before the current ones. I mean, you know me, not a believer. But I could feel something there – and I can feel it here.”

“The Force is stronger here than I've ever felt it. That's why the Temple was here. It was mostly open air – I think the pillars were just boundary markers. How can you reach something tied to nature under a roof?” Luke moved behind Han, put his hands on the pirate’s shoulders. “Close your eyes, don't think. I want you to feel this – this is what Leia and I feel, what Rey will feel. What _you_ will feel.”

“Luke –“

“Quiet... peace…shut your smart mouth for once,” Luke said affectionately.

The hands on Han’s shoulders tightened; he heard Luke’s voice easily over the wind and realized it was now in his mind, not his ear. _Feel the Force flowing through you. Your first steps, like Rey’s, like mine. Remember me on the Falcon, listening to Obi-Wan and you scoffing at us both. Don’t scoff._

_Luke –_

_Breathe. How did you navigate that asteroid field – Leia told me, she’d never seen flying like it. Imagine that again – show me. Find the sun on the horizon, remember that day._

Han stared at the horizon, slowed down his breathing the way he did when everything in a battle accelerated, the instinct that had kept him alive dozens of times. Remembered that day escaping Hoth, evading the Empire yet again. The start of a horror show he never wanted to repeat, but he could conjure the exhilaration of pulling off the impossible, Chewie woofing at him, Threepio panicking, Leia struck silent.

_Yes, that’s it – I’m flying with you now. Keep breathing, let go. I won’t let you go under._

The chill wind, the smell of the ocean, Luke close at his back, all slipped away. For long moments, he felt nothing then… surfaced into the night a few days after Endor, when he and Leia had held Luke as he told them of his fight with Vader and the Emperor. Luke's words died away and he _was_ Luke, looking up at Vader, looming larger than he ever had over Han himself, red blade drawn. The Emperor gloating from his throne that Luke’s weakness was his faith in his friends. He could feel the waiver of conviction in Vader…

He was standing next to Leia, her hair braided down her back, in Jedi blacks, just as Luke was. Luke made the third point in their triangle, and Han was back in himself. He could see a shadowy, huge shape beyond them that had to be Snoke. Rey stormed up to Han's side, the blue of her ‘saber reflecting in Luke’s eyes, as Skywalker turned towards Snoke, with that calm smile.

_Yes, that is what I see._

Colder than carbon freeze, and he felt a beloved presence turned to hatred and anger. He was on the gantry at Starkiller, far further out than he had gone. “Your son is dead.”

Run through with the red blade – the excruciating, deadly pain freezing him in place –

 _Han!_ Luke’s voice, loud and firm. _Come back to me, come back!_

In the world, he nearly fell out of Luke’s strong hands on his shoulders. Skywalker turned him and wrapped him into an embrace, dragging his cloak around them both. _I’ve got you, that didn’t happen –_

_That’s what you saw. In the vision._

Luke nodded, pulling Han tight against him, nearly holding him up.  

_That was the future I changed. I didn’t realize you were drifting there or I’d’ve brought you back. You shouldn’t have been able to see that._

Han had known in the back of his mind, but seeing Ben's dead eyes, so close, feeling the 'saber…

_That’s what would have happened. Luke…_

_The Force brought it to me to change. The price of loving us was not going to be your death. I will always be there for you and Leia. You are who I love – you are my heart._

Luke looked into Han's troubled gaze, whispered, “That is not your end. We end together, just as we began together. Just as we always fought. Just as we love each other.”

Han looked into the crystal blue eyes. “How do you live with that in your head? I don’t know if…”

Skywalker drew a ragged breath. “Your sense is heightened here, it won't always be this overwhelming.”

Rey nearly screamed behind them. “He’s coming – he figured it out!”

Luke kept one arm around Han, turned to Rey and held out a hand. She sprinted the last meters to him and took it. “Rey, no, he’s not that close – the Force is strong here, it’s amplifying everything. But he is coming. I’d say he’s coming faster than we think. We need to get out of here now. He is probably sifting through every planet like this.”

“That’s what we’d do,” Han said wearily. He felt like he actually had been run through as he drew back from Luke’s tight embrace, nodding at the Jedi.

Luke swore in Huttese. “I wanted to stay here and give you both a better sense of how the Force should work but we can’t risk it. Han, can we get the Falcon up here?”

“I think Chewie could put it down where we met you. It’s a bad slope but we’ve done worse. Plus we won’t be long. If we hike down, it’ll take half the damn day.”

Luke laughed shortly. “There’s not much to pack up, then we’ll blow up everything before we go. I don’t want him to have any trace to start with.”

The Falcon soared overhead not much later, swooping around to land. Han shook his head. “Chewie, stop showing off and get on the ground.” He caught Luke’s unease.  “I comm’d him last night when you and Rey were talking. He'll happy to see you. The big fur ball still loves you, although he might be a little angry to start with.“

Luke drew a shaky breath as the ship fired thrusters and neatly rocked its landing gear into the grass. He hadn't dare let himself realize what he had missed or every day would have hurt like this. The ramp lowered and Chewbacca stormed down, Artoo rolling behind him to the end of the gangway , beeping excitedly. The Wookie made it to them, enveloped Luke in a hug that threatened, as always, to overwhelm him.

“Hey Chewie,” he reached up to try and return the hug and the Wookie growled out a sentence. Luke looked puzzled, his Shryiiwook rusty at best. "Missed me?"

Han saw his confusion. “Yes. He wants to know why this miserable place. Too cold for someone from a desert. And he likes the beard. Not the hair. I have to agree.”

“Frankly, I’m kinda sick of the hair myself. But yours looks worse. I’ll cut mine if you get yours cut by someone who isn’t a Wookie.”

Chewie woofed an objection and Luke laughed, ducking the swipe at his head.

“Deal. I think you should ditch the robes too.” Han said as they started up the ramp with the few bags Luke was taking – full of data pads of Luke’s notes, Jedi holocrons, and a small sack of crystals for 'sabers.

“Really?” 

“Yeah. You looked better in black. Shoulda seen him then, Rey.”

“I’ll go back to the blacks if you ditch that nerf hide jacket.

Han looked skyward for help. "You and Leia – what have you got against this jacket? It's perfectly fine."

"You can’t swing a ‘saber in it.”

Rey turned, looking excited. “You’re going to get a ‘saber too?”

Han mock scowled at Luke. “Apparently, he’s brought me into the cult at last.”

Luke moved to Artoo, kneeling before the droid, beeping at him. “Hey, Artoo, I’m happy to see you too.” He patted the domed head. “Like old times.”

“And you’re getting that hand fixed. Shoulda done it before you left.

“It may be too late for a new hand.”

“Oh, you're so old. It’s been a few years, they’re better at making them. If the Resistance can’t do it, Leia and I will find the credits and the right black market doctor. I’m sure Lando’ll know just the one.”  Han moved to Luke as the others started up the ramp. “It’ll be all right, kid, we’ll make it right,” he whispered in the Jedi’s ear.

“We have to. We’re the last hope.”

“Again. C’mon.” Han pulled back to arms’ length. “You’ll have to excuse the Falcon, she’s a little rundown –“

“She was always a piece of junk.”

Han mock glared at him, like old times. “I should make you walk home.”

“The Falcon is my home." Luke smiled at him, brilliant as sunlight. "One of them. The other is wherever you and Leia are.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is officially the longest story I've ever written, which is appropriate, since Star Wars has been my fandom for a long time - since 1980. I will thank TFA for bringing it back to me, even as this story was written in response to what it did to the OT3. They deserve better... But it got me writing after thirty years away, so hat tip!
> 
> Thanks to Holly C, who got me into the fandom all those years ago and has been encouraging and enabling this with betas - for that and for many other things! And thanks to Jessebee for betas, encouragement, and many things as well!!
> 
> To the Tumblr gang who've given me so many great GIF sets and metas and thoughts, and brought my fandom back. Find me on Tumblr and I'll post the liner notes for the story, including why it has this name!
> 
> ETA: [Liner Notes](https://culturevulture73.tumblr.com/post/147767679597/fix-you-notes-first-because-i-will-be-a)


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